Dvorak's New World Symphony
Dvorak's New World Symphony (more formally called Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, From the New World), in E minor, Opus 95, B. 178, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America. It is his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular in the romantic repertoire.
Neil Armstrong took a recording of the New World Symphony to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the first moon landing, in 1969. The theme from the Largo movement was adapted into the spiritual-like song Goin' Home by Dvořák's pupil William Arms Fisher, who wrote the lyrics in 1922. Dvořák may have modeled that tune on the spirituals written by composer Harry Burleigh, whom he met in America.
Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904) was a great Czech composer of the late Romantic period. Renowned for his lively Czech folk-melodies, he also played a significant role in the development of music in the United States, where he lived from 1892 to 1895. His best-known works include the New World Symphony, the Slavonic Dances, the American String Quartet, the opera Rusalka, the Cello Concerto, and the choral works Stabat Mater, Requiem (Opus 89), and Te Deum.
